Phoenix Investment Adviser, which manages a $165 million fixed-income strategy, is coming off of a spectacular year in which it returned 158%. Founder Jeffrey Peskind believes that “we’re now in the sweet spot of the credit cycle,” and he’s planning to take advantage by investing in attractively priced junk bonds. “Defaults are definitely going to be coming down dramatically in 2010, and the economy, we think, is stabilizing and starting to improve.” Peskind launched Phoenix in 2003 with $1 million. He was previously a proprietary trader at Bank of America, where he managed a $600 million credit fund. Before that, he ran the bank’s distressed bond trading desk. In 2008, JLP Credit dropped 42%, largely...